PDF Version

Current version: MS 365 24.3.2 - September, 2024

Preface

About this Guide

Thank you for selecting CloudAlly for MS 365. Relax! All your Microsoft 365 data is now securely protected with easy recovery from data loss. CloudAlly comprehensively backs up your Microsoft 365 Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, OneNote, Teams & Groups data on industry-leading AWS S3 storage. Our product’s ethos is to provide feature-rich backup and recovery with security, ease of use, and flexibility woven in.

CloudAlly is cloud-native, a full cloud-to-cloud solution. No installation is required, the setup is hassle-free, backup is easy, and there are flexible recovery and export options. Read on for instructions about how to activate and manage your backups, restore your data by keyword, from any point-in-time, and at any granular/hierarchical level, export your backups to your own storage, activate summary/exception reporting, and set up MFA and other helpful features.

Questions or comments? Please contact us at support@cloudally.com or search our Knowledge Base at https://support.cloudally.com/hc/en-us.

Audience

This guide is intended for individuals who administer CloudAlly for MS 365.

 

Creating and Accessing Your Backup Account

Prerequisites

To administer the backup for the Microsoft 365 environment, the following is required:

• Microsoft license
• Global Administrator account in Microsoft Office - online version

Sign Up/Sign In from the CloudAlly Home Page

• In your Internet browser, open cloudally.com and click Login.
• Click Customers. The Sign In page is displayed.

• If you don’t have an account yet, click Sign Up. The Sign Up page is displayed.

• Complete the form, and then click Sign up.

Note:    CloudAlly gives you the choice of numerous AWS data centers available in the dropdown menu “Location.” These include locations in Australia, Canada, EU (France, Germany, and Ireland), US, UK, South Africa, and Japan. The ability to choose from a wide range of data centers helps our customers comply with local data sovereignty laws that regulate the physical location and movement of data. In addition, we also offer a “Bring Your Own Storage” (BYOS) option on request. This allows you to backup sensitive data in your own AWS S3 buckets, S3 compatible storage service, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. Please contact support@cloudally.com for more information.

• Your trial account is created, and an email containing your activation link is sent to your email address. Click on the activation link contained in the email you received to activate your account. If you sign up with Google, Azure, or Okta, the activation link will not be sent to you.
• Once your account is activated, you are redirected to the CloudAlly login page. Enter your email address/password and click Sign In to login and access your account.

You can also enable Two-Factor authentication to provide additional security. For more information, see Managing Your Account .

Resetting Your Password

If you do not remember your password, you can easily reset it using the Password Reset function.

• On the sign-in page, click Forgot your password? to start the process of resetting your password.

• The Password Reset page will appear.

• In the Email field, enter the email address that you used to sign up.
• Click Reset, and the Password Reset window will appear.

The email will look as follows:

• In the email, click Reset CloudAlly Password to confirm the password reset, and the Change Your Password window will appear.

• Enter your new password in the New Password field and again in the Confirm New Password field, and click Save.

After resetting the password, you will be directed back to the Sign In to your Account.

Backing Up Your MS 365 Data

MS 365 lacks the daily backup and archiving process necessary for you to restore data after it has been manually or automatically removed from the recycle bin. CloudAlly's automated daily MS 365 backup service ensures that you can both quickly recover data from any point in time as well as export your archives for local storage.

CloudAlly's MS 365 service backs up data from:

• Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Notes (Microsoft Exchange)
• Conversations, Sites, Calendars and Channels (Microsoft Teams and Groups)
• All of your sites, files, and libraries (Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint)

With a few simple clicks, you can activate backups for all or selected users.

Microsoft 365 Exchange

Creating a New Backup Task

To create a new backup task:

• Sign in to your account, or if you are already signed in, click the Homepage option in the Navigation Panel.
• On the Homepage, click + Add Backup Task.

• Click the name of the service you would like to back up, in this case: Microsoft Exchange.

• Fill in the name of the backup task. This name is used in the notifications and reports, and it can be changed later.
• You will see the OAuth based authorization Click Authenticate to start the process of granting the access token. You will be redirected to the Microsoft sign-in page. Enter Global Admin credentials to sign in to your Microsoft account.

Important: The user that you enter must have Global Admin permissions.

Note:     "Use credential-based authorization" is not active by default, and we don’t recommend it. If you would like to use this, contact Support.

Configuring a Backup Task: Microsoft Exchange

This set of options enables you to select the backup settings for the account, team or site. Click the gear-shaped settings icon.

• You can change the name of the backup task by clicking the pencil icon.
• The Connected / Disconnected icon indicates whether the application was able to connect to the specified MS 365 account. If the authentication token granted for the application becomes invalid (e.g., it expires due to inactivity because you put the backup task on pause for a long time), the Connected icon changes to the Disconnected icon. To grant the application a new token, click on the icon to open the authentication dialog, and repeat the authentication process.
• By default, the Index all data for Search option is selected, which enables CloudAlly to provide you with its granular search and restore functionality. In the process, your data is temporarily decrypted for a brief period of time, and then re-encrypted once the index is built. If this goes against your company policy and you would like to disable automatic indexing, please contact Support.
• In the Microsoft Exchange system, accounts can have a Microsoft “Unlicensed” status (not to be confused with “Unlicensed CloudAlly product”). These can be the external accounts invited by users with an active license, accounts automatically generated for shared file storage, etc. Check the Backup Task page to see which accounts are MS licensed and unlicensed.

Note:    “Unlicensed” accounts have limited permissions, and we don’t advise using “Unlicensed” administrator accounts.

• Backups are automatically archived when an entire account is deleted. The Retain auto-archived backups option allows you to retain them for a specified number of days, after which they will be automatically deleted. Otherwise, the backups will be retained indefinitely.
• The Automatically activate new mailboxes option instructs the system to detect new mailboxes, and begin backing them up automatically.
• Create a new activation rule - see explanation below.

Note:    The Backup Datacenter and Retention Period fields are “display only,” and their values can’t be changed here.

• The Backup Datacenter field displays the Datacenter location you selected when you signed up with your registration.
• The Retention Period field displays whether a retention period has been set up. By default, we provide unlimited retention of your daily backups for as long as you maintain your account subscription. You can override this default and specify a retention period in days, months, or years by submitting a support ticket. Backups older than the retention period specified will be automatically deleted.

• Backup Frequency and Backup Hour
  • Click the drop-down list of the Backup Frequency field and select how often you would like the backups to occur. The available options include:
    • Daily
    • Every 3 Days
    • Weekly
    • 3 times a day - contact CloudAlly to enable this option.
  • Click the drop-down list of the Backup Hour (UTC) field and select the backup hour. Click Save.

Activating Your Backups

Once you have configured your backup settings, you need to Activate them, in order for them to begin backing up your data.

• Navigate to the list of account, team or sites following the Backup Settings section.

Note:    The screens below are from Microsoft 365 Exchange, but the functionality is identical for all of the Microsoft 365 applications.

• Select one or more account, team or site(s).
• Click Action > Activate. The status of your backups will now be "Scheduled." This means that they will be backed up at the time that you selected on the Configuration screen.

• Alternatively, if you prefer to perform an immediate, on-demand backup, click Action > Backup Now.

If you forget to activate any of your backups, there will be an indicator on the Homepage that reminds you:

Activate by Active Directory Settings

If you choose to activate by directory settings, the following screen appears next. Select the property that will be the basis for your new Activation Rule.

If you want to create a conditional activation rule, click Automatically activate new accounts that match this condition, and then click Next.

The following pop up will appear.

The pop up includes two available options for activation:

• Continue To Automatically Activate ALL New Accounts
• Activate Only By Conditions Set Through Bulk Activation

New accounts matching the selected Property will be automatically detected and activated in the backup system. This does not affect the already existing accounts.

• Click Next once you have selected the desired Property and its values. The list of accounts matching the selected Property is displayed. Review the list of accounts that will be activated. You can clear the check boxes next to an account to exclude it from the activation process.

• Click Activate. The selected accounts are activated, and if you have selected the Automatically activate new accounts that match this condition check box, the conditional activation rule is created.

Activate by MS365 Groups

If you choose to activate by Microsoft 365 Groups, the following screen appears next.

Select the group(s) you would like to back up:

Note:    Activation by Microsoft Groups works for already-existing mailboxes.

Select one or more groups, and click Next.

You have the option of a one-time activation, which will only run once, or Create an activation rule, which will run automatically. It checks daily to see changes to each group, and will back up mailboxes that are added to groups.

You can also configure a deactivation rule. There are three options: maintaining the current status, pausing backups or deleting backups.

Import a List of Accounts

If you choose to Import a List of Accounts, you will be prompted to upload a CSV file with a single column titled “Account Email.”

Backing Up a Public Folder

In order to back up a Public Folder, the Admin account must have a mail Microsoft 365 Exchange license and needs to have read/write permissions for the Public Folder.

To back up a Public Folder:

• From the Exchange Admin Center, click Public Folders.
• Select the Public Folder that you want to back up and click '...' to select Root Permissions.
• Verify that the Admin account used for the CloudAlly backups has read/write access to the Public Folder. If not, click '+' to add the Admin account.

Public Folders data will be available for recovery under the PublicFoldersAccount record, listed among other backed up Exchange users.

The restore process for a Public Folder creates a sub-folder. Add the generated restore folder as a new Public Folder in order to allow access to the restored data.

Follow the normal Microsoft 365 Exchange Online procedures to create a public folder, using the CloudAlly restored sub-folder as the path, as well as any additional sub-folders that are included in the restore.

Usage Reports

In order to provide greater clarity about what CloudAlly is backing up, you can export a CSV file that lists all of the entities - mailboxes, teams and sites - that were backed up, including the status of each entity (active, inactive, or archived). And for Microsoft Exchange mailboxes, the file will list whether each one is licensed or unlicensed. To export a usage report, click the Export button. The report will be sent to the user via email.

Securing Your Backups

By default, all primary and secondary users can preview, browse, and recover any backed up data. This could be a security risk if sensitive information is contained in the backup snapshots.

Primary users can limit access to one or more sites, drives, accounts, or users so that only they will be able to see, restore and export this data.

• Primary user: From the Homepage, click the name of the service whose data you would like to restrict.
• Click one or more account, team or sites.
• Click Tags, and check the Limited Access tag.

• Click Apply. You will be asked to confirm:

• The tag will now appear in the Tags column as follows.

 

This will prevent secondary users from browsing and recovering the data.

To remove the tag, the primary user should simply reverse the process - un-check the Limited Access tag, and re-apply.

Modifying the Settings of an Existing Backup

• Click the particular MS 365 icon from the list or enter a keyword in the Search field to find a specific task. The MS 365 Backup page is displayed.
• Click the gear-shaped Settings icon.

From here, it is possible to modify the fields described in "Configuring a Backup Task: Microsoft Exchange."

Removing an Entire Backup Service

To remove an entire backup service, click the Delete Backup icon of the backup service you want to remove.

Microsoft 365 Exchange

The Confirm Delete pop-up window is displayed with a warning message.

Click Delete. The selected backup service is removed from your account.

To prevent mistaken deletions, there is a grace period of 7 days, during which your data is still maintained and you can cancel the operation.

Removing an Individual Account, Team or Site

• Click the backup service from which you want to remove the account, team or site. The backup task settings page is displayed.
• Add a check next to the item that you want to remove. Click Delete in the Actions menu.

• A pop-up window is displayed with a list of accounts selected for removal. Click Delete. The selected account, team or site are removed from your account.

.

To prevent mistaken deletions, there is a grace period of 7 days, during which your data is still maintained and you can cancel the operation.

Microsoft 365 OneDrive

Adding a OneDrive Backup Task

• Click OneDrive.

• Fill in the name of the backup task. This name is used in the notifications and reports, and it can be changed later.

• Click Authenticate to start the process of granting the access token. You will be redirected to the Microsoft sign-in page. Enter Global Admin credentials to sign in to your Microsoft account.

The user that you enter must have Global Admin permissions.

• You can change the name of the backup task by clicking the pencil icon.
• The Connected / Disconnected icons indicate whether the application was able to connect to the specified MS 365 account. If the authentication token granted for the application becomes invalid (e.g., it expires due to inactivity because you put the backup task on pause for a long time), the Connected icon changes to the Disconnected icon. To grant the application a new token, click on the icon to open the authentication dialog, and repeat the authentication process.
• By default, the “Index all data for Search” option is selected, which enables CloudAlly to provide you with its granular search and restore functionality. In the process, your data is temporarily decrypted for a brief period of time, and then re-encrypted once the index is built. If this goes against your company policy and you would like to disable automatic indexing, please contact support@cloudally.com.
• The Automatically activate new sites option instructs the system to detect new teams and groups, and activate them automatically.
• Backups are automatically archived when an entire site is deleted. The Retain auto-archived backups option allows you to retain them for a specified number of days, after which they will be deleted. Otherwise, the backups will be retained indefinitely.

Note:    The Backup Data Center and Retention Period fields are “display only,” and their values can’t be changed here.

• The Backup Data Center field displays the Data Center location you selected when you signed up with your registration.
  
  The Retention Period field displays whether a retention period has been set up. By default, we provide unlimited retention of your daily backups for as long as you maintain your account subscription. You can override this default and specify a retention period in days, months, or years by submitting a support ticket. Backups older than the retention period specified will be automatically deleted.

• Backup Frequency and Backup Hour
  • Click the drop-down list of the Backup Frequency field and select how often you would like the backups to occur. The available options include:
    • Daily
    • Every 3 days
    • Weekly
    • 3 times a day - contact CloudAlly to enable this option.
  • Click the drop-down list of the Backup Hour (UTC) field and select the backup hour. Click Save.

Bulk Activation and Management

To create a bulk activation rule, click +Run Bulk Activation.

Click Activate by MS365 Groups, and then click Next.

Choose one or more groups that you would like to activate:

You have the option of a one-time activation, which will only run once, or Create an activation rule, which will run automatically. It checks daily to see changes to each group, and will back up sites that belong to users that have been added to groups.

The OneDrive settings screen will display the group activation rules that you enabled.

Activating a Backup Task

Once you have configured your backup settings, you need to Activate them, in order for them to begin backing up your data.

For instructions, see "Activating Your Backups."

Modifying the Settings of an Existing Backup

See instructions in "Modifying the Settings of an Existing Backup."

Removing a Backup

See instructions in "Removing a Backup."

Microsoft 365 SharePoint

Adding a Microsoft 365 SharePoint Backup Task

Note:    In order to back up all data, CloudAlly assigns the backup user to be the site collection administrator. If CloudAlly is unable to do so (for example, because the user doesn't have proper permissions), then the user needs to be added manually.

• Click the name of the service you would like to back up.

 

• Fill in the name of the backup task. This name is used in the notifications and reports, and it can be changed later.

• Click Authenticate to start the process of granting the access token. You will be redirected to the Microsoft sign-in page. Enter Global Admin credentials to sign in to your Microsoft account.

• You can change the name of the backup task by clicking the pencil icon.
• The Connected / Disconnected icon indicates whether the application was able to connect to the specified MS 365 account. If the authentication token granted for the application becomes invalid (e.g., it expires due to inactivity because you put the backup task on pause for a long time), the Connected icon changes to the Disconnected icon. To grant the application a new token, click on the icon to open the authentication dialog, and repeat the authentication process.
• By default, the “Index all data for Search” option is selected, which enables CloudAlly to provide you with its granular search and restore functionality. In the process, your data is temporarily decrypted for a brief period of time, and then re-encrypted once the index is built. If this goes against your company policy and you would like to disable automatic indexing, please contact support@cloudally.com.
• The Automatically activate new sites option instructs the system to detect new sites, and activate them automatically.
• Backups are automatically archived when an entire site is deleted. The Retain auto-archived backups option allows you to retain them for a specified number of days, after which they will be deleted. Otherwise, the backups will be retained indefinitely.

Note:    The Backup Datacenter and Retention Period fields are “display only,” and their values can’t be changed here.

• The Backup Datacenter field displays the Datacenter location you selected when you signed up with your registration.
  
  The Retention Period field displays whether a retention period has been set up. By default, we provide unlimited retention of your daily backups for as long as you maintain your account subscription. You can override this default and specify a retention period in days, months, or years by submitting a support ticket. Backups older than the retention period specified will be automatically deleted.

• Backup Frequency and Backup Hour
  • Click the drop-down list of the Backup Frequency field and select how often you would like the backups to occur. The available options include:
    • Daily
    • Every 3 days
    • Weekly
    • 3 times a day - contact CloudAlly to enable this option.
  • Click the drop-down list of the Backup Hour (UTC) field and select the backup hour. Click Save.
• Bulk Activation - see below.

Bulk Activation and Management

To create a bulk activation rule, click +Run Bulk Activation.

Click Activate by SharePoint URL, and then click Next.

Choose a filter to locate which SharePoint URLs you would like to back up, and click Next.

You have the option of a one-time activation, which will only run once, or Create an activation rule, which will run automatically. It checks daily to see if there are new SharePoint sites that match the conditions set in the activation rules (for example, "begins with X, " "ends with Y"), and then backs up these sites.

The SharePoint settings screen will display the activation rules that you enabled.

Activating a Backup Task

Once you have configured your backup settings, you need to Activate them, in order for them to begin backing up your data.

For instructions, see "Activating Your Backups."

Modifying the Settings of an Existing Backup

See instructions in "Modifying the Settings of an Existing Backup."

Removing a Backup

See instructions in "Removing a Backup."

To create a new backup task:

1. Sign in to your Account, or if you are already signed in, click the Homepage option in the Navigation Panel.
2. On the Homepage, click + Add Backup Task.

3. Click the name of the service you would like to back up.

• Fill in the name of the backup task. This name is used in the notifications and reports, and it can be changed later.
• You will see the OAuth based authorization Click Authenticate to start the process of granting the access token. You will be redirected to the Microsoft sign-in page. Enter Global Admin credentials to sign in to your Microsoft account.

Configuring a Microsoft 365 Teams & Groups Backup Task

This set of options enables you to select the backup settings for the account, team or site. Click the gear-shaped Settings icon.

• You can change the name of the backup task by clicking the pencil icon.
• The Connected/ Disconected icon indicates whether the application was able to connect to the specified MS 365 account. If the authentication token granted for the application becomes invalid (e.g., it expires due to inactivity because you put the backup task on pause for a long time), the Connected icon changes to the Disconnected icon. To grant the application a new token, click on the icon to open the authentication dialog, and repeat the authentication process.
• By default, the Index all data for Search option is selected, which enables CloudAlly to provide you with its granular search and restore functionality. In the process, your data is temporarily decrypted for a brief period of time, and then re-encrypted once the index is built. If this goes against your company policy and you would like to disable automatic indexing, please contact support@cloudally.com.
• The Automatically activate new groups/teams option instructs the system to detect new teams and groups, and activate them automatically.
• Backups are automatically archived when an entire team or group is deleted. The Retain auto-archived backups option allows you to retain them for a specified number of days, after which they will be deleted. Otherwise, the backups will be retained indefinitely.

Note:    The Backup Datacenter and Retention Period fields are “display only,” and their values can’t be changed here.

• The Backup field displays the Datacenter location you selected when you signed up with your registration.

Note:    Your backup storage datacenter cannot be changed once it's been set during the account setup process. Contact Support if you need to move backups to a different geographic region, or if you'd like more information on our “Bring Your Own Storage” (BYOS) option.

• The Retention Period field displays whether a retention period has been set up. By default, we provide unlimited retention of your daily backups for as long as you maintain your account subscription. You can override this default and specify a retention period in days, months, or years by submitting a support ticket. Backups older than the retention period specified will be automatically deleted.
• Backup Frequency and Backup Hour
  • Click the drop-down list of the Backup Frequency field and select how often you would like the backups to occur. The available options include:
    • Daily
    • Every 3 Days
    • Weekly
    • 3 times a day - contact CloudAlly to enable this option.
  • Click the drop-down list of the Backup Hour (UTC) field and select the backup hour. Click Save.

Activating a Backup Task

Once you have configured your backup settings, you need to Activate them, in order for them to begin backing up your data.

For instructions, see "Activating Your Backups."

Modifying the Settings of an Existing Backup

See instructions in "Modifying the Settings of an Existing Backup."

Removing a Backup

See instructions in "Removing a Backup."

Recovering Your Backed Up Data

Microsoft 365 Exchange: Performing a Full Mailbox Recovery

• There are two ways to perform a one-click full mailbox recovery:
  • From the Homepage, on the MS 365 backup that you would like to restore or export, click Recovery.

• OR: From the Homepage, click the backup you would like to restore. Locate the user account you want to restore, and click the Recovery icon in the Actions column.

• Click Full Mailbox Recovery.

The subsections below explain about the two options: Export or Restore.

Exporting Your Backed Up Data

• Click Export to download a .zip file of your backed up data.

• Choose the backup you want to export.
  • First option: restore the Last Backup.
  • Second option: click Specific Backup Date and select a backup date from the calendar with a backup status indication. Once you click a particular date, a card will open, indicating whether the backup was successful, partially successful, or if it failed.

 

Legend: Meaning of Calendar Dots

Dot Color	Meaning
Green	Successful backup
Orange	Partially successful backup
Two dots	Multiple backups on that date

• Select which sub-services to export.
• The default is all sub-services.
• Click a toggle to the “off” position to remove individual sub-services.

• Click the gear-shaped settings icon. The following options are available:
  • Legal holds: Choose this option if you want to export all legal / litigation holds placed on this mailbox using Microsoft's Exchange Online Archive (EOA) service.
  • Export deleted items: recover items that were deleted in the past, even those that are no longer in the Deleted or Recoverable Items folders.
  • Use 20 GB chunks for .pst: if the mailbox is very large, this option has the benefit of generating fewer files that are each 20 GB, rather than the default size of 5 GB.

• Select the export ZIP destination, such as direct download, Amazon S3, Azure Blob, Box, Dropbox, AWS S3 Compatible (if you are bringing your own storage) or Google Cloud Platform. Depending on which option you choose, there will be other data to complete (e.g., Bucket Name, Access Key and Secret Key for Amazon S3).
• Review the information on the confirmation screen. If the information is correct, click Export to begin the recovery task. (If the information is not correct, click Cancel.)

• Check the Jobs page to track the progress of your job. See Tracking Recovery Tasks on the Jobs Page for details.
• When the export is complete, click Download Results.

 

A new page will open which will enable you to download your data file.

Restoring Your Backed Up Data

• Click Restore to recover your backed up data and store it either in its original location or a different one.

• Choose the backup you want to restore.
  • First option: restore the Last Backup.
  • Second option: click Specific Backup Date and select a backup date from the calendar with a backup status indication. Once you click a particular date, a card will open, indicating whether the backup was successful, partially successful, or if it failed.

 

Legend: Meaning of Calendar Dots

Dot Color	Meaning
Green	Successful backup
Orange	Partially successful backup
Two dots	Multiple backups on that date

 

• Select which sub-services to restore.
  • The default is to restore all sub-services.
  • Click a toggle to the “off” position to remove individual sub-services.

• Restore Destination: Choose where to restore your backup to:
  • The default is to restore to the original account.
  • Alternatively, you could restore to a different account, provided it is within the same domain. Click that option, and select an account from the drop-down list.
• Restore Type:Choose one of the following:
  • Non-destructive restore: Existing data will remain as-is, and the restored data will be in a dedicated folder, preserving the original folder structure.
    Use this option: to keep restored data separate, enabling manual drag & drop of items to relevant folders
  • Replace restore: The restored items will be located in the same place as the existing items, not in a separate folder when you choose nondestructive restore.
    • Deleted items and folders will be restored from the snapshot.
    • Existing items will be overwritten with the snapshot version.
    • Use this option: to restore or repair deleted / modified items
  • Bypass restore: Restored content will be located in the same place as the existing items.
    • Deleted items and folders will be restored from the snapshot.
    • Existing items will be skipped.
    • Use this option: to restore deleted data
• Review the information on the confirmation screen. If the information is correct, click Next and then Restore to begin the recovery task. (If the information is not correct, click Cancel.)

• Check the Jobs page to track the progress of your job. See "Tracking Recovery Tasks on the Jobs Page" for details.
• After the restore task completes, you will receive a Confirmation Report by email.

Choosing a Backup Date

Which backup are you looking for? The default is the last backup date, but if you’d like to change to an earlier date, click the calendar icon.

 

The dots indicate that one or more backups were performed on that day. Two dots indicate that multiple backups were performed on that day. Once you click a particular date, a card will open, indicating whether the backup was successful, partially successful, or if it failed.

 

Legend: Meaning of Calendar Dots

Dot Color	Meaning
Green	Successful backup
Orange	Partially successful backup
Two dots	Multiple backups on that date

• Select your desired date, and click Confirm.

Browsing Your Backups

Each of the backed up sub-services has a card: Emails, Contacts, Tasks, Calendars and Notes.

• Each of the cards has a number on it, which shows how many items there are on that date – in the mailbox, in the list of contacts, in the list of tasks, in the calendar, or in the list of notes.
• Each of the cards also has a colored status indicator, which lets you know whether the sub-service was successfully backed up, whether it was partially successful, or if it failed.

Choosing Items to Restore or Export

After you have selected the date of the backup, and the sub-service to recover, you need to choose which items to restore or export.

The Recovery folders are in the same familiar order as they are in Outlook, to make it easy for you to find the item you are looking for.

In addition to the usual folders, such as Inbox, Sent Items, and Deleted Items, at the bottom of the list you will find the Recoverable Items folder, and the In-Place Archive folder (if it has been activated) followed by CloudAlly Restored folders, indicated by "Restored emails" and the date of the restore.

• If you looking for a specific email, click the arrow of the email to see the first line of the message.

Contacts

When you select Contacts, you can see all of the details about the people in your list: Name, Email, Phone, Address, Job Title, and Company name.

Tasks

When you select the Tasks sub-service, you can see the Subject, Status and Due date.

Calendar

When you select a Calendar event, you can see the start and end dates, and if you select it, you can see the description.

Notes

When you choose a note, you can preview its contents.

Restore

Once you select one or more items, the Restore button becomes active. When you click Restore, you will see all of the sub-services that you selected.

• You can choose to remove any of the sub-services by sliding the toggle bar to the left.
• By default, CloudAlly assumes you want to restore to the original account, or you can restore to a different account, as long as it is in the same domain.

Restore Options

Restore Destination

You will have the option of:

• Restoring to the original account
• Restoring to another account in the same domain.

Restore Type

Choose one of the following:

• Non-destructive restore: Existing data will remain as-is, and the restored data will be in a dedicated folder, preserving the original folder structure.
  • Use this option: to keep restored data separate, enabling manual drag & drop of items to relevant folders
• Replace restore: The restored items will be located in the same place as the existing items, not in a separate folder when you choose nondestructive restore.
  • Deleted items and folders will be restored from the snapshot.
  • Existing items will be overwritten with the snapshot version.
  • Use this option: to restore or repair deleted / modified items
• Bypass restore: Restored content will be located in the same place as the existing items.
  • Deleted items and folders will be restored from the snapshot.
  • Existing items will be skipped.
  • Use this option: to restore deleted data

Restore Options

If you choose Replace Restore, the following options become available:

• Add a "restored..." tag to restored items, so you will be able to identify which items were added to your account.
• Add "restored..." to Outlook folders and calendars that the Restore process created.
• Create a snapshot of the restore endpoint prior to data upload - This is a local backup of the current contents of your account before the restore is implemented.

After you choose all of your Restore options, you can check the Jobs page to see the status of your job. See Tracking Recovery Tasks on the Jobs Page for details.

When the restore is complete, you will receive a notification email .

• When you export multiple sub-services, the format will be a single PST file.

• When you export a single sub-service, you can choose to customize the export format in the following ways.
  • If you click the gear-shaped settings icon, you can choose the export format: EML or PST.
  • You can also choose to have larger, 20 GB .pst files, instead of 5 GB files.

  

  • The gear-shaped settings icon allows you to choose the format of the download file: iCAL or PST.
  • The other option that you have when you export is to choose the destination: Amazon S3, Azure Blob, Box, DropBox, AWS S3 Compatible (if you are bringing your own storage), Google Cloud Platform, or a simple Zip file.

Note:    The default "for download" option exports the file to your local storage device.

• Check the Jobs page to track the progress of your job. Tracking Recovery Tasks on the Jobs Page

• When the export is complete, click Download Results.

 

A new page will open which will enable you to download your data file.

 

Advanced Search

To perform a granular, keyword search, click Advanced Search.

Enter your search criteria for any of these sub-services:

• Email – Enter a keyword in the Search for field. For advanced search options, click the down-arrow and provide the following details in the drop-down form:
  • From: Enter a name or email address from which the email was received.
  • To: Enter a name or email address to which the email was sent.
  • Subject: Enter a keyword that matches any text in the email subject.
  • Date from / Date to: Enter the date range of the emails you would like to restore.
• Contacts: Enter a name in the Search for field.
• Tasks: Enter a keyword in the Search for field.
• Calendars: Enter a keyword in the Search for field. For advanced search options, click the downward-facing arrow, and provide the following details in the drop-down form:
  • Description: Enter all or part of the event description.
  • Owner: Enter the user name or the email address
  • Date from / Date to: Enter the date range of the calendar you would like to restore.

How to Restore a Deleted Microsoft Exchange Mailbox

This procedure should be performed by a user with Administrator permissions.

• Recreate all users in the Active Directory that have been deleted.
• Recreate their mailboxes. Alternatively, restore the mailboxes to an existing user, but ensure that the users have a license with a mailbox.
• From the Homepage, locate the Microsoft Exchange backup task you would like to restore, and then click the Recovery icon.
• Select one of the active mailboxes on the list, and click Next.
• In the Full Mailbox Recovery box, click Restore, and then Next.
• Choose the backup you want to restore.
  • First option: restore the Last Backup.
  • Second option: click Specific Backup Date and select a backup date immediately prior to when the mailbox was deleted.
• Select which sub-services to restore, or accept the default of restoring all services (recommended).

• Select which sub-services to restore, or accept the default of restoring all services (recommended).
• Choose where to restore your backup to:
  • The default is to restore to the original account.
  • Alternatively, you could restore to a different account, provided it is within the same domain. Click that option, and select an account from the drop-down list.
• Review the information on the confirmation screen. If the information is correct, click Next and then Restore to begin the recovery task. (If the information is not correct, click Cancel.)
• Check the Jobs page to track the progress of your job. After the restore task completes, you will receive a Confirmation Report by email.
• The restored data will be in a newly created “(Restored)” folder. After the recovery, move the recovered data back into the appropriate mailbox folders.

Note:    For multiple Microsoft Exchange mailboxes, please contact Support for assistance.

Recovering Microsoft 365 OneDrive and Microsoft 365 SharePoint

Note:    The screens below are from a OneDrive recovery, but the functionality is identical for SharePoint.

The Recovery Menu provides you with options at a fine granularity for selecting which sites to restore or export.

To recover your backed up data:

Note:    In order to restore all data, CloudAlly assigns the backup user to be the site collection administrator. If CloudAlly is unable to do so (for example, because the user doesn't have proper permissions), then the user needs to be added manually.

• Click Recovery from the Navigation Panel. The Restore & Download page is displayed with all your active-backup account details.

• Click the OneDrive or SharePoint backup task from which you wish to recover the data. The Restore or Download Active Mailboxes page is displayed.

This page displays all your OneDrive and SharePoint domains backed up with the details such as Site name, First Backup date, Last Backup date, and available Actions. Your backed-up data is ready for download, from this page.

• You can filter the list using the following options:
  • Filter by statuses such as All, Active, In Process, Not Active, Scheduled, Paused, Backed-up in another task, or Archived, from the drop-down list.
  • Or: search by part or all of the Site name.
• Click the arrow icon at the end of the line of the site which you want to restore or export (download).

The Restore or download Microsoft page is displayed.

• Select the radio button for your preferred restore method:
  • Via Snapshot
  • Via Item Search

Restore or Download Via Snapshot - OneDrive or SharePoint

• Enter the date range that you would like to restore using the Data changed from and To fields, and press Continue.
• The list of backup snapshots within that date range is displayed. Select the snapshot you want to recover.

• Alternatively, you can click the magnifying glass icon in the Action column to drill down into the snapshot and view the structure of the backed up data. There you can select one or more items for recovery.
• Once you select a snapshot (if you wish to recover all the data in the backup), or one or more items (if you wish to recover only selected items), the Restore and Download buttons become available.

Restore - OneDrive or SharePoint

If you click Restore, the restore confirmation window appears, asking you about the following:

• Do you want to restore to another tenant? If so, provide the email address of the administrator, the password, and the site to restore to.

Note:    The administrator should have read/write access to the destination site. Therefore we suggest using a Microsoft account that has a Global Admin or SharePoint Admin role.

• Do you want to perform a non-destructive restore, where the existing data will remain as-is, and the restored data will be in a dedicated folder, preserving the original folder structure? 
  • Use this option to keep restored data separate, enabling manual drag & drop of items to relevant folders.

Note:    The non-destructive restore option only works when you are restoring from OneDrive to a SharePoint sub-site, and the option to create a SharePoint sub-site is enabled in Microsoft.

• Or do you want to perform an in-place restore? You have three options for doing so:
  • Replace: The restored items will be located in the same place as the existing items, not in a separate folder when you choose nondestructive restore. Deleted items and folders will be restored from the snapshot. Existing items will be overwritten with the snapshot version.
    
    Use this option: to restore or repair deleted / modified items.
    
    
  • Bypass: the restored content will located in the same place as the existing items. Deleted items and folders will be restored from the snapshot. Existing items will be skipped.
    
    Use this option: to restore deleted data.
    
    
  • Duplicate: the restored data will be duplicated in the same location as the existing data, with a suffix that indicates that it is a copy. (The suffix contains the year, month, day, hour, minutes, and seconds, e.g., 20230401000525.) Deleted items and folders will be restored from the snapshot.
    
    Use this option: to compare both versions of each file, to ensure the correct version is preserved.
• When you have completed the confirmation form, click OK.

• The backup data that you selected will be restored to the location that you specified. When the recovery process is complete, a summary will be sent to your email. You can also check the Jobs page to see the progress of your task. See "Tracking Recovery Tasks on the Jobs Page."

A Note About OneNote

CloudAlly is able to back up and restore OneNote, both from within SharePoint and within OneDrive. CloudAlly backs up and restores all content, except for the following items:

• Audio recordings (*.wav files)
• Images created with the Draw menu
• Tables
• Page color
• Rule lines
• Text styles (e.g., Headings, Normal, etc.)
• Attachments, except for image files, which are restored (Microsoft limitation)
• Tags

Export/Download - OneDrive or SharePoint

• If you click Download, the following confirmation window appears.

• Click the drop-down list and select one of the following storage locations:

• If you select options other than “for download,” you may be asked for additional credentials and/or access tokens for the selected storage locations.
• Click OK. The download instructions are sent to your registered email address. The download link is only valid for 72 hours.
• Or, you can check the Jobs page. (See "Tracking Recovery Tasks on the Jobs Page.") When the task is completed, the Download Results button will be active.

• Click Download Results, and a page will open, where you can access your backup file.

Restore or Download Via Item Search - OneDrive or SharePoint

• Select Via Item Search, and enter a word or phrase to search for.
• Or, click the arrow to the right of the search bar, and enter search criterion in any of the Advanced fields:  Author, filename or date.

• Click Continue. The Restore or download page is displayed, showing the search results with details such as Date, Subject, and FolderType, Name and Date. The details columns are different for different types of restored items.
• Select items you would like to restore or download. When at least one item is selected, Restore and Download become available.
• Follow the instructions in the Restore or Export/Download sections to complete the recovery process.

How to Restore Deleted SharePoint Collections

• Recreate all of the deleted Site Collections in Microsoft SharePoint.
• Click Recovery from the Navigation Panel, and then click on the SharePoint backup task.
• Locate the Site Collection that you want to restore, and then click the arrow icon to the right of the site. The Restore or download page is displayed.
• Select the Via Snapshot radio button
• Enter the date range that you would like to select from, or just click Continue for a full list of backups.
• Select the backup you want to recover – the one closest to the date that all of your SharePoint data was deleted.
  • Go to the bottom of the page, and click Restore.
  • From the pop-up dialog, click Replace: Restore will overwrite existing live data and then click OK.
  • Click Yes to the question about overwriting live data.

Note:    You will receive an email notification when the restore is complete and can view the job status from the Jobs page.

How to Restore Deleted OneDrive Sites

• Click Recovery from the Navigation Panel, and then click on the OneDrive backup task.
• Locate the Site that you want to restore and then click the arrow icon to the right of the site. The Restore or download page is displayed.
• Select the Via Snapshot radio button.
• Enter the date range that you would like to select from, or just click Continue for a full list of backups.
• Select the backup you want to recover – the one closest to the date that all of your OneDrive data was deleted.
  • Go to the bottom of the page, and click Restore.
  • From the pop-up dialog, click Replace: Restore will overwrite existing live data and then click OK.
  • Click Yes to the question about overwriting live data.

Note:    You will receive an email notification when the restore is complete, and you can view the status from the Jobs page.

Recovering Microsoft 365 Teams & Groups

The Recovery Menu provides you with options at a fine granularity for selecting which account, team or site to restore or export.

To recover your backed up Teams & Groups data:

• Click Recovery from the Navigation Panel. The Restore & Download page is displayed with all your active-backup account details.

• Click the Teams / Groups backup task from which you wish to recover the data. The Restore or Download Microsoft Groups/Teams page is displayed.

This page displays all of your backed up Teams & Groups, with details such as Team/Group name, First Backup date, Last Backup date, and available Actions. Your backed-up data is ready for download from this page.

• You can filter the list using the following options:
  • Filter by statuses such as All, Active, In Process, Not Active, Scheduled, Paused, Backed-up in another task, or Archived, from the drop-down list.
  • Or: search by part or all of the Team/Group name.
• Click the arrow icon at the end of the line of the group or team which you want to restore or export (download).

The Restore or download Groups/Teams page is displayed.

• Select the radio button for your preferred restore method:
  • Via Snapshot
  • Via Item Search

Restore or Download Via Snapshot

See the instructions in "Restore or Download Via Snapshot."

Restore - Teams & Groups

• If you click Restore, the restore confirmation window appears, asking for the group/team to which you would like to restore the data. Enter the address, and click OK.

• The backup data that you selected will be restored to the location that you specified. When the recovery process is complete, a summary will be sent to your email. You can also check the Jobs page to see the progress of your task. See "Tracking Recovery Tasks on the Jobs Page."

Export/Download - Teams & Groups

See the instructions in "Export/Download OneDrive or SharePoint."

Restore or Download Via Item Search - Teams & Groups

• Select one of the following options:

• Conversation: Enter a keyword in the Search for field.
• Site: Sites refer to the SharePoint site where Teams files are stored. Enter a keyword in the Search for field. For advanced search options, click the arrow and provide the following details in the drop-down form:
  • Author: Enter the name of the person who created the file in the Teams channel.
  • Item Name: Enter a term that matches part of the file name.
  • Date from / Date to: Enter the date range during which files were sent in the Teams channel.
• Calendars: Enter a search keyword in the Search for field. For advanced search options, click the arrow and provide the following details:
  • Description: Enter a keyword that matches part of the event description.
  • Owner: Enter a name or email address of the calendar owner.
  • Date from / Date to: Enter the date range of the calendars you would like to restore.
• Channels: Enter a search keyword in the Search for field. For advanced search options, click the arrow and provide the following details:
  • Date from / Date to: Enter the date range of the data you would like to restore.
  • Sender: Enter a name of the person who sent messages within that channel.
  • Channel: Enter part or all of the channel name.

• Click Continue. The Restore or download page is displayed, showing the search results with details such as Date, Subject, and Folder. The details columns are different for different types of restored items.
• Select items you would like to restore or download. When at least one item is selected, Restore and Download become available.
• Follow the instructions in the Restore or Export/Download sections to complete the recovery process.

How to Restore Deleted Teams Sites

First Step: Restore a Public Channel

Note:    Private channels need to be exported and then restored.

• Click Recovery from the Navigation Panel. The Restore & Download page is displayed with all your active-backup account details.
• Click the Microsoft Groups/Teams backup task from which you wish to recover the data. The Restore or download Microsoft Groups & Teams page is displayed.
• Locate the Team (not the Group – that will come later) that you would like to restore. Click the arrow at the end of the row. The Restore or download Microsoft Groups/Teams task page is displayed.
• By default, Via Snapshot is selected. Enter the appropriate date immediately before the Teams data was deleted, or simply click Continue without filling in the date fields to view all backups.
• Locate the most recent Channel backup prior to the ransomware attack and select it. Go to the bottom of the page, click Restore, and then click OK.

Note:    This is a non-destructive restore – the data will be placed into a newly created Team called (Restored [date]).

• Check the Jobs page to determine when the restore is complete.
• Click the Homepage element from the Navigation Panel, and then click on the Teams backup task to return to the Teams backup. Click the CloudAlly refresh icon to display the newly restored Team. You will need to perform the following steps.

Note:    The refresh icon is not to be confused with the browser refresh button.

Second Step: Restore the Teams Sub-Services

Perform the following steps for each of these Teams sub-services in this order:

• Sites
• Calendars
• Conversations
• Metadata – this will finalize the restore, by recovering the Members, Owners, and most importantly, the Team Name.

For each sub-service, perform the following steps:

• Click Recovery from the Navigation Panel, and then click the Microsoft Teams backup task from which you wish to recover the data.
• Locate the most recent Team backup prior to the loss of your data. Click the arrow under the Action column to navigate to the Restore or Download
• Locate the most recent Site, Calendar, Conversation, or Metadata (in that order) and select it. Go to the bottom of the page and click Restore.
• Click the Restore To field and select the (Restored) channel.
• For Sites, select the Replace: Restore will overwrite existing live data option.
• Click OK to complete the restore.
• Repeat these steps for the remaining sub-services.

How to Restore Deleted Groups

Groups are created by Microsoft when the Teams are created. When you restored the Channel, both the Team and the Group were created at the same time. Before you begin, verify that the Group was indeed created in Microsoft.

Note:    If you want to restore a Group, it can only be restored into a Group; Teams are restored into Teams.

Perform the following steps for each of these Group sub-services in this order:

• Sites
• Calendars
• Conversations
• Metadata – this will finalize the restore, by recovering the Members, Owners, and most importantly, the Group Name.

For each sub-service perform the following steps:

• Click Recovery from the Navigation Panel, and then click the Microsoft Groups backup task from which you wish to recover the data.
• Locate the most recent Group backup prior to the loss of your data. Click the arrow under the Action column to navigate to the Restore or Download.
• Locate the most recent Site, Calendar, Conversation, or Metadata (in that order) and select it. Go to the bottom of the page and click Restore.
• Click the Restore To field, a select the (Restored) channel.
• For Sites, select the Replace: Restore will overwrite existing live data option.
• Click OK to complete the restore.
• Repeat these steps for remaining sub-services.

From the Navigation pane, click Jobs.

High-Level Summary

• The top portion of the Jobs dashboard summarizes how many of your jobs are in progress, how many have successfully completed, and how many have failed over the past 7 days.

To see a list of jobs that have any of these 3 statuses, click on the status, and your results will be filtered accordingly.

• Status: Filter by one of the following:
  • In progress
  • Succeeded
  • Failed
  • Pending
  • Canceled

• Search by Task: Filter by a task, such as:
  • Microsoft Exchange
  • Teams/Groups
  • OneDrive
  • SharePoint

If you choose to filter using a particular service, then you can focus on a specific item in the search bar. You can also order by:

• Latest First
• Oldest First

Description of Each Job

• The rest of the screen provides a detailed description of each individual job that you ran.
  • Type of Job: Export, or Restore – this appears as a title within each job description.
  • Name, Service, and Account of the job.
  • Start date, backup date, initiator, destination, total items backed up or restored, and the size of the file(s).
• Cancel enables you to stop a job that is in progress.
• Download Results enables you to download a zip file with your recovery data.
• View Log redirects you to the System Activity page, which displays your account activity with details such as Activity, Date and Time, Service, Sub-Service, Status, Task Name, and Item.

This page enables you to filter and search the list of backup tasks, export the list as a CSV file, and view more details on any backup task.

The latter can be achieved by clicking the information icon in the Activity column. The Info pop-up displays the backup execution time, the size of the stored data, and the number of entities, and the summary of the backup execution:

Compliance

Delete Backed Up Data: GDPR's "Right to Be Forgotten" Option

The way to delete data items - emails and files - from a CloudAlly backup is to enable the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) "right to be forgotten" option. CloudAlly supports deleting items from the following services:

• Outlook: Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes
• SharePoint
• OneDrive
• Teams & Groups: Conversations, Calendars, and Sites

To enable the ability to delete backed up items:

• Request from Support that they enable the GDPR delete button for you. They will ask you for the name of your account, and the service for which you would like to enable this.
• From the Homepage, click Recovery.
• Click the service that contains the item you would like to delete.

Note:    It is not possible to delete an entire folder, only one or more items.

• Click the arrow at the end of the row of the account, team or site that contains the item you would like to delete.

• Click "Via Item Search" and enter the desired search criteria. For example, if you would like to delete all emails received from a specific person, type their email address. Or you can search by keyword.

Note:    It is not possible to perform a GDPR delete using "Via Snapshot."

• Select the item(s) you would like to delete, and click Delete.

Note:    Ensure that the item you wish to remove is already removed from the source. If it is not, CloudAlly will continue backing it up, even if you deleted it using the "Delete" button.

• The system will ask you to confirm the delete request. Once you have confirmed, the item will be removed from our system within a few days.

Filtering and Viewing Drill-Down Details

This section explains the process of finding the exact backup data you are looking for using filtering.

Filtering by Account, Team or Site

• Click the Homepage option from the Navigation Panel. The Homepage screen appears.

• Click the desired service from the list or enter a keyword in the Search field to find a specific task. The specific service's backup page is displayed.

This page displays all the accounts, teams, or sites available for the account you are using. The page displays the details such as:

• Microsoft Exchange: Mailbox name, Email, Microsoft Licensed / Unlicensed, Status, Backup Size, and Last Backup date
• Microsoft Teams & Groups: Group/Team Name, Type (Group or Team), Tags, Status, Backup Size, and Last Backup date
• Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive:  Site name, Tags, Status, Backup Size, and Last Backup date

It also provides the means to filter and control the associated backup tasks.

Filtering Using Tags

CloudAlly provides you with the means to add extra metadata to your backed up data in the form of "tags." For example, you might want to denote all mailboxes, accounts, or sites that belong to Managers, or all those that belong to the Sales Team.

You can use tags to quickly filter your list of mailboxes, accounts or sites.

The Tags option is used to search for existing tags. By default, it is not active. To activate Tags:

• Select at least one account, team or site.
• Click Tags, and the following screen appears.

• To search your existing tags, enter a tag name in the Search tags field.

Creating a New Tag

2. Enter a new tag name and click Create.

 

To apply tags to your accounts, teams or sites:

• Select at least one account, team or site.
• Click Tag.
• Choose the desired tag for your account, team or sites.
• Click Apply.

Filtering by Tag

In the Filter by tag field, enter a tag name. The accounts, teams or sites with those tags will appear.

Actions

To perform actions on an account, team or site, select at least one of them on the list, and the Action button will be enabled. Click Action to see the following drop-down menu:

• Activate enables backup in all the selected account, team or sites.
• Pause halts the backup procedures on the selected account, team or sites.
• Backup now starts the backup immediately. The backup in this case starts as soon as a backup processing machine is available, which may take several minutes.
• Delete removes the backup task and backup data for the selected account, team or sites.

Viewing Backup Statistics with the Drill-down Feature

Select an account, team or site, and click the arrow button at the end of the row. This option enables you to drill down to the backup history dashboard.

When you drill down, you can find a diagram describing past backups, and a brief summary of the backup outcomes.

The summary tiles below the chart provide at-a-glance information about the backup: for each sub-service, they display the total number of items in the backup, the date of the last backup, and the outcome.

Managing Your Account

This section guides you through the processes of managing your Account activity, account settings, password, setting up two-factor authentication, and managing users.

Viewing Account Activity

The Activity menu enables you to view your account activity, including System Activity and Security Audit. Click Activity on the navigation pane.

System Activity

Click System Activity.

The System Activity page displays your account activity, with details such as Activity, Date and Time, Service, Sub-Service, Status, Task Name, and Item.

Security Audit

The Security Audit page provides information about all the security-related actions that have happened in your account. The user activity that is displayed includes:

• Backup deleted
• User deactivated
• Settings changed
• Sign-in success or failure
• Permissions changed
• Notifications.

The page includes the date of the event, the type of activity, the service involved, the status of the activity, the account performing the activity, and the description.

The Security audit table can be exported as a CSV file by clicking Export.

Note:    Administrators can grant users permission to see the Security Audit page by clicking Settings > User Management, and checking "View Security Audit Page."

Managing Your Account Settings

The Settings page provides you with tools to control both your account and the accounts of users whose external credentials are linked to your account. The Settings section consists of the following sub-sections:

• Account
• User Management
• Security
• Notifications

You can find more details on each of the Settings pages below.

Account Settings

This page allows you to change the name of your account and the email address. You can only change the Data Center Location by contacting Support. Finally, this page also allows you to terminate your account.

You can update the Account Name and/or Email.

Note:    If you change your email address, you will receive an email sent to your new address for confirmation. The new address will not become active until it is confirmed.

Click SAVE. The following screen will appear. If you did not receive the confirmation email, click Resend Email Confirmation

 

 

Canceling Your Subscription

To cancel your subscription:

• Check the box for "I approve the removal of my data from CloudAlly" field and click REMOVE ACCOUNT.
• The Are you sure? pop-up window is displayed with a confirmation request.
• Click YES to confirm the cancellation.

Note:    To prevent mistaken deletions, there is a grace period of 7 days after your account is terminated. After the grace period, if your account is not reactivated, all data from all your backups will be deleted.

Click + Add new user to create a new user and start the configuration procedure for that user, or the pencil icon to edit an existing user’s settings. The settings include the operations permitted to the user and the list of available services:

Note:     Selecting the role “Administrator” enables permissions to all services and operations.

To save changes, scroll to the bottom of the page and click SAVE.

You will be returned to the Settings page. To complete the process, the user must confirm their email address using the link sent via email. This is a security measure, which ensures that the user's email address is valid.

The link is valid for 24 hours. If they did not confirm within this time period, or did not receive the confirmation email, click Resend Email Confirmation.

• Update your password
• Set up two-factor authentication

You can also enforce certain security policies for your users’ accounts.

• With the Enforce Two-Factor Authentication option, you can make two-factor authentication mandatory for all the users in your account.
• By setting the Password Expiration, you can enable the password expiration option for all your users – you will be also be asked for the number of days before the users’ passwords expire.

Changing Your Password for Credential-Based Authorization

You can change your existing account password by performing the following procedure:

• From the Settings >Security page, in the Personal Password Policies panel, click Change Password.
• The Change password pop-up is displayed.

• Enter the current password in the Current Password field.
• Enter the new password in the New Password field.
• Re-enter the new password in the Confirm New Password field.
• Click SAVE. You can now use this password to access your account.

Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication provides additional security to your account and your backup data.

To enable two-factor authentication:

• Click Activate 2FA. The Two-Factor Authentication page is displayed.

• Download an Authenticator app, depending on your platform.
• Open the Authenticator app and add your account by scanning the QR code provided in the web application.
• If you cannot use a QR code, then enter the text code provided in the web application.
• A six-digit code is generated.
• Click NEXT.
• Enter the 6-digit code that the application generated.
• Click ENABLE to complete the process of activating the Two-factor authentication.

From now on, every time you sign in to your Account, you are asked to enter a 6-digit code from your authentication app, after you click SIGN IN. Click VERIFY to verify the code and access the application.

SAML

The Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is an open federation standard that allows an identity provider (IdP) to authenticate users and then pass an authentication token to another application known as a service provider (SP).

CloudAlly supports Okta as its SAML provider.

There are two steps to setting up Okta so that you can use it to log in to CloudAlly:

• Setting up CloudAlly in the Okta Application
• Setting up Okta in the CloudAlly application

Setting up CloudAlly in the Okta Application

• In the Okta application, click Applications > Applications > Browse App Catalog.

• In the search bar, enter CloudAlly.

• Click the arrow next to CloudAlly SAML 2.0, and Assign to Users or Assign to Groups.

• Click CloudAlly SAML 2.0, and on the next page, click the General tab.

• Scroll down until you see the App Embed Link section. Copy the URL that is displayed - you will need this to set up Okta in the CloudAlly app.

Setting Up Okta in the CloudAlly Application

• From the Homepage, click Settings in the Navigation panel.

• On the Settings page, click Security.

• Click the SAML tab.

• Paste the URL that you copied from the Okta site.

• Click Activate.
• Read the "Are you sure you want to activate SAML Authentication with Okta" message in the next window, and click Confirm.

After clicking Confirm, the Activate state changes from Email & Password: Active to SAML: Active.

IP Restrictions

Need fine-grained access control of your endpoints? You can restrict access to the Portal based on the users' IP addresses. This is especially helpful to enforce security policies and prevent unauthorized access by limiting backup/restore requests to company-approved IP addresses, such as an office IP, or a particular VPN.

Setting Up IP Restrictions

To enable IP restrictions in your account, first create the list of trusted IP addresses.

It is strongly recommended to use this feature only if you have a static IP address, to prevent users from being locked out.

• In the Settings panel, click Security, and then IP Restrictions.

• Click + Add IP Address.
• Enter one or more IP addresses:
  • Enter individual addresses separated by commas, and an optional description.
  
  • Or, enter a one or more ranges of contiguous addresses, and an optional description. Multiple ranges could be used to accommodate VPN and internal networks.
  
• Once you enter at least one address, the Trusted IP Addresses toggle will be turned on. You can always return to disable IP restrictions later on.

You can edit your list of addresses by clicking the pencil icon, or delete ones that you no longer want on your trusted list by clicking the trash icon.

Note:    If you forget to include your own IP address on the trusted list, IP restrictions cannot be enabled.

Your CloudAlly account is now protected from access by users who are not on your list.

Blocking Access

If a user tries to access your CloudAlly account from an untrusted IP address, the following "access denied" error message will appear:

Email Notifications

Whenever you enable or disable IP restrictions, or modify the addresses, CloudAlly will send you an email notification, letting you know what has changed.

Notifications Settings

This menu option enables you to manage your system notifications.

From the Navigation Panel, click Settings > Notifications.

The following screen will appear:

To set up a new recipient:

• Click + Add new recipient.
• Enter the Email of the recipient and the Display name. The Display name is used in the report email to address the recipient.
• Select the desired notification types:
  • Summary Report
  • Recovery Notification
  • Exceptions Notification
  • Auto Discovery Notification
  • Smart Alerts
• Click SAVE to create the new recipient.

Managing Subscriptions and Payments

Subscribing to CloudAlly

Once the trial period has ended, you need to subscribe to CloudAlly to access and manage your backups, otherwise your backed up data will be deleted.

To subscribe to a plan:

• Click the Subscribe link displayed in your account. Alternatively, you can click the Billing option of the Navigation Panel.

The Review Billing page is displayed with the option to select either MONTHLY or ANNUAL billing options.

Note:    You can subscribe before the end of the trial period, and the payment period will start after the trial period is over.

• Click MONTHLY or ANNUAL, depending on your preference. 

You are redirected to the Payment Details page. Fill in the billing and credit card details to finish the subscription process. Refer to Payment Details for more information.

Monthly Subscriptions

When you subscribe to a monthly plan, the credit card that you registered in the Billing > Payment Details page will be charged the amount that you owe.

CloudAlly's billing is handled by a PCI-compliant payment processor.

To finalize your subscription, enter your credit card details and general billing information, and then click Subscribe.

The initial payment will be charged at the end of your 2-week trial period.

A receipt will be emailed to you each month after you are charged.

If CloudAlly is unable to charge your credit card (e.g., because it has expired), you will be notified by email. Additionally, a message will appear in the application that you need to go to the Billing Status page so you can review your billing details, and then update your credit card information if necessary.

Note:    The billing status is usually updated within a few minutes after the payment is complete. If the status has not updated after 24 hours, please contact support@cloudally.com.

Note:    The monthly payments are processed automatically once you provide the required information in the Payment Details section, and it has been verified that your credit card is valid. To disable automatic payment processing, please contact Support. Instead, you will start receiving monthly invoices for the payments.

Annual Subscriptions

When you subscribe to an annual plan, you will receive a confirmation message that your request has been submitted, and then Support will send you an email, asking that you confirm your annual subscription request.

Once you have confirmed, CloudAlly will email an invoice to you, payable in 30 days by credit card, PayPal, or bank transfer.

After the initial payment, CloudAlly will send you an invoice 30 days before your payment is due, in 11 months. You will also be reminded that your annual subscription is due online:

Note:    The billing status is usually updated within a few minutes after the payment is complete. If the status has not updated after 24 hours, please contact support@cloudally.com.

Should you fail to make your annual payment, you will be reminded with a message like this:

After you finalize your subscription, the Billing > Payment Details page displays additional billing management options and provides a brief summary of the payment information for the current period and the next payment date.

Payment Details

The Payment Details page contains the information used for billing.

Monthly Subscriptions

If you have chosen a monthly payment plan, you can update your credit card and billing details here:

Add New Card

The ADD NEW CARD option enables you to define your card information for a monthly subscription payment.

To create a new payment method:

• Click ADD NEW CARD.
• Enter the card details such as Card Number, CVV, Card holder’s name, and card expiry date.
• Click ADD NEW CARD.

The new card information is saved and activated, and you can use this card.

The details section displays billing information such as Currency, Title, Name, and Billing email.

• Below, there are more fields in the Billing details section. The Company Tax ID field indicates your company tax ID. (This is mandatory for Israeli companies.)

Note:    Due to Value-added tax (VAT), Israeli companies must include their Tax ID. Therefore, the Company Tax ID field is mandatory for Israel, and if this field is not completed, our company will not be able to provide you with backup services.

 

• Update the required fields. The fields marked with the * symbol are mandatory.
• Click UPDATE BILLING DETAILS.
• The updates are saved.

You can choose whether you want to receive the Invoices or Receipts as a link or as an attachment to the email.

Note:     You can change the billing currency by contacting Support.

Annual Subscriptions

If you have chosen an annual payment plan, you can update your billing details here. When you are done, click SAVE.

Billing Status

Annual Subscription

When you have paid your annual subscription, this page displays the next payment forecast for the upcoming payment date. The details include Service type and backup name, Quantity, Unit Price, and the Total Amount.

When your subscription amount becomes due, the Billing Status page displays the following information:

• Issue date - the date the invoice was issued
• Status - Paid, Due or Overdue
• Due Date - the date by which the invoice must be paid.
• Effective Date - the date the subscription period begins.
• Total Amount - amount owed.
• Download Invoice - Click this to download a PDF copy of your invoice.
• Email Invoice - Click this to send an invoice to your email address.
• Pay Invoice - Click this to directly pay the amount owed online.

You can click Pay Invoice, and you will be directed to the following screen, where you can pay your invoice via PayPal or by credit card:

From here, click Update credit card details and provide the new information.

History

This page displays the history of payments.

By clicking on the reference number, you can download the receipt, which provides details about the number of backed-up accounts or the amount of stored data, and the total amount paid. It also displays the payment method used.

An example of a receipt is displayed below.

Billing Notification Messages